Results for America named Oregon among five Leading States using evidence and data to improve lives. 

Salem, OR — At a virtual event co-hosted by the National Governors Association, Results for America recognized Oregon as a national leader in using data and evidence to guide decision-making and invest taxpayer dollars in programs that work.

Results for America named Oregon among five leading states using evidence and data to improve lives. 
Salem, OR — At a virtual event co-hosted by the National Governors Association, Results for America recognized Oregon as a national leader in using data and evidence to guide decision-making and invest taxpayer dollars in programs that work.

Results for America is a national nonprofit that promotes evidence-based policymaking. Its newly released 2023 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence highlights advances in evidence-based grantmaking, budgeting and direct services, and identifies 194 efforts across 46 states to build and use evidence and data to achieve better, more equitable results for residents. Since 2018, the State Standard of Excellence has offered states a “North Star” to benchmark their existing data and evidence capacity, as well as a roadmap for how they can accelerate their progress.

Oregon was one of this year’s five leading states. Highlights of its data-driven work include:

• Investment of funds in evidence-based direct services for young people.
• The use of evidence-based budget targets.
• A focus on budgeting towards creating equitable outcomes, including the addition of racial impact assessments in agency budget requests.
• Strong data leadership, including having a state data strategy, a data strategy website, and undertaking efforts to support open data and transparency among state agencies.

“Oregon being one of the five leading states speaks volumes about how dedicated our state agencies are to using data meaningfully to improve Oregonians’ lives,” said Oregon’s Chief Data Officer Kathryn Darnall Helms. “I look forward to seeing Oregon continue to mature while working in partnership with our Governor and state agencies.”

“In red states and blue states, state governments are harnessing the power of evidence and data to deliver better results,” said Michele Jolin, CEO and Co-Founder of Results for America. “Governors, state legislators and state agency leaders are using the key levers of power — grantmaking, budgeting and direct services — to expand evidence-based solutions and accelerate economic mobility. By building more efficient and effective governments, they are helping restore the public’s faith in government’s ability to tackle our most urgent challenges.”

The other leading states are Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina and Tennessee. Honorable
mention states are California, Connecticut, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Utah. Oregon was also an honorable mention in the 2022 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence.

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